A quarter of Brits to use mobile payments in the next 12 months

A quarter (25 per cent) of Brits intend on using mobile payment methods in the next 12 months, a new report by MasterCard says. At the moment, one in 20 people use it once a week, or even more.

The report also says the majority of people (65 per cent) are worried what would happen if a device falls into someone else's hands.

“We have built the secure foundations for these payments across our network,” says Elliott Goldenberg, Head of Digital Payments, MasterCard UK & Ireland.

“You can load your MasterCard onto your device through Android Pay, confident in the knowledge that it gives you all the benefits and consumer protection of a card transaction. Our research shows that one in three people intend to link to their credit card for that reason.”

One of the key differences between contactless and mobile payment is that mobile allows for purchases bigger than £30, thanks to verification methods such as tokens. They make sure your card’s details aren’t passed on to the retailer.

“As consumers increasingly recognise these benefits, mobile payments will begin to see the kind of growth that contactless has had over the last two years,” Goldenberg added.

Token works like this: as you set up your Android Pay, MasterCard will create a digital token, which differs from your credit card number. It is stored on a secure server, and cannot transact via any other device. When a consumer wants to purchase something, it’s the token that gets provided, not the actual card number.

The new feature is available in a number of banks, including Bank of Scotland, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds, MBNA and M&S Bank.